It is very self contained, no need to play previous Elder Scrolls games before playing this one. There are references to previous games, but they are just a nod to the lore of the series with no impact on gameplay for the gamer. The modding community is also still alive and well - so theres a huge amount of game time and fun you can add through mods alone when you start modding ;)

No. Skyrim was the first of the Elder Scrolls game I ever played. I had no previous knowledge of the others. My friend just bought it for me for my birthday and I loved it. I still don't know much about the old games other than what I picked up from Skyrim. c:

If you are, then the designers made a poor game. If you want to get into earlier TES at all, then I would say start with Morrowind. Surprisingly, from a patient gamer's point of view, I believe Morrowind was and is the best of the lot. But if you wanted to know for knowing's sake, I would go with Morrowind, then Oblivion then Skyrim. However, as others have pointed out, Skyrim features literature in-game that was found in the earlier games and relates to them.

Plus, Skyrim will literally blow you away with visuals, gameplay and music. (I really really REALLY like the music in Skyrim:- Combine some of the quiet, twinkly ambient movements with the sound of the wind etc... and you are in a truly beautiful place).

It has been debated often, that it has a lot of sandbox qualities to the game; ie: character development and exploration, This is true. You can spend a lot of the time just wandering around, levelling, crafting, buying, selling, questing... it can be a game that YOU CAN ROLE PLAY IN - without doing any of the quests..

Morrowind was and is class! You can get a superb texture mode that changes everything graphicaly about the game. Also get the DLC for it along with Oblivion and all it's DLC.The music is also something that stays with you forever. I put in somewhere in the region of 300hrs with Oblivion and nearly that with Morrowind.I'm only into about 55hrs with Skyrim, but that was because i didn't have a good enough PC to play it when it came out and built this one 18 months ago.

If you are, then the designers made a poor game. If you want to get into earlier TES at all, then I would say start with Morrowind. Surprisingly, from a patient gamer's point of view, I believe Morrowind was and is the best of the lot. But if you wanted to know for knowing's sake, I would go with Morrowind, then Oblivion then Skyrim. However, as others have pointed out, Skyrim features literature in-game that was found in the earlier games and relates to them.

Plus, Skyrim will literally blow you away with visuals, gameplay and music. (I really really REALLY like the music in Skyrim:- Combine some of the quiet, twinkly ambient movements with the sound of the wind etc... and you are in a truly beautiful place).

It has been debated often, that it has a lot of sandbox qualities to the game; ie: character development and exploration, This is true. You can spend a lot of the time just wandering around, levelling, crafting, buying, selling, questing... it can be a game that YOU CAN ROLE PLAY IN - without doing any of the quests..

Morrowind might be a little difficult to get into, just because it's so old. Some people can do it. But, even with mods, it's quite dated. Doesn't mean you shouldn't try it though; you might like it. Oblivion is quite good, even when held against Skyrim's accomplishments. It's definitely worth checking out.

Plus, Skyrim will literally blow you away with visuals, gameplay and music. (I really really REALLY like the music in Skyrim:- Combine some of the quiet, twinkly ambient movements with the sound of the wind etc... and you are in a truly beautiful place).

It has been debated often, that it has a lot of sandbox qualities to the game; ie: character development and exploration, This is true. You can spend a lot of the time just wandering around, levelling, crafting, buying, selling, questing... it can be a game that YOU CAN ROLE PLAY IN - without doing any of the quests..

Well said, man, well said. Skyrim is a masterpiece of gaming design, just for that very reason alone: you can play it however you like to play it, and spend hundreds of hours just exploring. I think it may very well be the best game ever created.

Morrowind was and is class! You can get a superb texture mode that changes everything graphicaly about the game. Also get the DLC for it along with Oblivion and all it's DLC.The music is also something that stays with you forever. I put in somewhere in the region of 300hrs with Oblivion and nearly that with Morrowind.I'm only into about 55hrs with Skyrim, but that was because i didn't have a good enough PC to play it when it came out and built this one 18 months ago.

55 hours in 18 months? you dont have a life do you? well stop it . skyrim is your life now.

lol, yeah those WERE the days, mate.I've just bought the full DLC for Skyrim, so that's me until oblivion ;- Plus i've got a ton of games on Steam that i jump in and out of; most notably i am a HUGE Operation Flashpoint fan (sand box, huge dynamic missions etc -not unlike TES) i just bought Arma 3 in the sale and that's eating my life too.Just as well i have a wife that loves gaming also.

If you are, then the designers made a poor game. If you want to get into earlier TES at all, then I would say start with Morrowind. Surprisingly, from a patient gamer's point of view, I believe Morrowind was and is the best of the lot. But if you wanted to know for knowing's sake, I would go with Morrowind, then Oblivion then Skyrim. However, as others have pointed out, Skyrim features literature in-game that was found in the earlier games and relates to them.

Plus, Skyrim will literally blow you away with visuals, gameplay and music. (I really really REALLY like the music in Skyrim:- Combine some of the quiet, twinkly ambient movements with the sound of the wind etc... and you are in a truly beautiful place).

It has been debated often, that it has a lot of sandbox qualities to the game; ie: character development and exploration, This is true. You can spend a lot of the time just wandering around, levelling, crafting, buying, selling, questing... it can be a game that YOU CAN ROLE PLAY IN - without doing any of the quests..

To expand upon this, there is a real drop in the amount of Role Playing in this TES game compared to the others but it's still a great game. I have logged over 1000 hours into the game since release and still haven't completed the DLC's for the game. Right now I am on an RPG hiatus while I play Watch Dogs but I am looking forward to getting back into Skyrim after I had forgotten about the ENB I am now using.

When it comes to Morrowind, there's a great package called the Morrowind Sound and Graphics overhaul package hosted on a site which will radically change the look of morrowind and there's mods available to change the combat and magic to a way that suits you. I fist played Oblivioni on an Xbox, then Morrowind on PC and then Skyrim and doing them out of order did me no harm at all. I tend to read the books and enjoy catching some parts of the lore that way. Morrowind was a lot more RPG orientated than Skyrim is and has what feels like a larger world space. (pretty sure it's not though)

Morrowind was the first game that blew me away with rain effects on my Creative 3D blaster GeForce 4 TI 4600 (DX 8.1 -if i remember) The thing with Morrowind was you couldn't hit a barn door at 2ft with a claymore nor fire an arrow and hit the whole barn! You had to specificaly be trained up in specific weapons and armour. you certainly didn't go charging about the landscape unless you wanted a very quick demise. You couldn't change class either